Firefighter benefits overly generous, costly

Thursday

Mar 26, 2009 at 12:01 AMMar 26, 2009 at 9:50 PM

Public safety is a primary goal of government. As a member of the Canandaigua City Council, I take this responsibility seriously and respect the work of those serving in our police and fire departments.

Val Fenti

Public safety is a primary goal of government. As a member of the Canandaigua City Council, I take this responsibility seriously and respect the work of those serving in our police and fire departments. We also have a responsibility to use city resources and taxpayer money in a cost-effective manner. City Council and staff have wrestled with reducing costs while preserving services. All but one department has taken the challenge: the fire department continues to make ever-greater demands on the city’s shrinking resources. How can the department trim costs?

Let’s first review their work schedule: Firefighters are contracted to work one 24-hour day, then take three days off, for an average 42 hours per week. That’s far less than the 56 hours per week the U.S. Department of Labor allows. So Canandaigua firefighters have five days a week to tend to their personal lives. In addition, they also receive 11 paid holidays and up to 5 weeks’ vacation.

Second, let’s look at the three benefits that cause most of the overtime costs:

(1) Firefighters receive three 24-hour personal business days and are paid for what they don’t take. What makes this so egregious is firefighters routinely have as many as 4 regular business days off each week!

(2) They receive 12 24-hour sick days per year, (36 eight-hour days) and are allowed to accumulate and request reimbursement for unused days at retirement. In 2008, they averaged 21.96 equivalent 8-hour sick days.

(3) They receive three 24-hour state mandated Kelly days to compensate them for working over 40 hours per week. Altogether they averaged 38.58 equivalent 8-hour days off in 2008. Here is the cost to the taxpayer: Each day of overtime costs $895 per firefighter. Each holiday costs $1,492 per firefighter. The city’s annual cost for each firefighter is $105,000. I say it’s the taxpayers who need the sick days!

Career firefighters have resisted every effort to reduce costs. While there is ample time in their workday, the union is resisting the city’s request to do fire inspections while on fire duty rather than on overtime. Instead, “We filed charges against them for making unilateral changes in our contract without negotiating with us,” said Matthew Fusco, their union’s attorney. Ka-ching! Ka-ching!

Not only are the firefighters and their union refusing to reduce their enormous budget outlays, they are lobbying to increase their ranks and minimum-staffing requirements from three to four. There is no justification for their request. The Matrix Fire Department study reported, “The Fire Rescue Department has continued to maintain response times within the national standard.” That study “suggested” that based on a decline in volunteers, the city “consider hiring additional career firefighters … .” However, since Canandaigua Fire Chief Matt Snyder arrived, our volunteers have increased.

Firefighters also cite a “recommendation” by the National Fire Protection Association that places the city’s fire department in the same staffing category as New York City with its skyscrapers and 8 million people. Most recently our firefighters have used emotional pleas, suggesting that their safety may be jeopardized if staffing isn’t increased. However, 10-year statistics of northeastern states by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health show most firefighter deaths are due to confusion, poor decisions and heart attacks. Not one was found to be due to under-staffing.

City career firefighters have had overly generous benefits long enough; it’s time they eliminate personal business days and reduce allowed sick days to be in line with other city employees. City taxpayers cannot afford — nor do we need — additional firefighters. The Fire Department should reduce the minimum staffing from three to two to cut costs. It’s of interest that six firefighters and their union attorney feel it’s perfectly safe for their families to live outside the protection of the city of Canandaigua, in all-volunteer fire districts without minimum staffing and where they don’t share the financial burden for their own outlandish benefits.

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